


Origins

by frankiesin



Series: Say It With Neon [14]
Category: Bandom, I Don't Know How But They Found Me (Band), Panic! at the Disco
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Closeted Character, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-17 10:38:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16514759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frankiesin/pseuds/frankiesin
Summary: Dallon doesn't know how to fit in at college. He's stuck between his past in Las Vegas and his future as a young adult.(MM17 universe)





	Origins

**Author's Note:**

> Yes hello did anyone ask for fetus Ryan and Dallon? No? Too bad it's my city now I do what I want.
> 
> (Listen I just really love the Dallon/Ryan friendship in MM17 and also college Dallon is just. Such a baby and I want to protect them from their own future)

**September 15, 2001; Provo, Utah.**

 

It was a weird Sunday. The church was crammed with people and there was a tangible nervous energy. Dallon’s mom had called him every day since the attack to make sure that he would be at church today. She was convinced that this was God’s way of letting the States know that they were going down a path of sin.

 

Dallon thought that it was more the result of the States getting involved with things that weren’t their problem, but he was a college liberal hack now and so apparently his opinions carried no weight. It didn’t matter that he was at a very conservative, religious school. He was working on a degree in English Education, which counted as a Liberal Arts degree, and so now everyone assumed he was going to become a homosexual communist.

 

The homosexual part had already happened. Dallon knew he was only interested in men, but he’d never tried to get a boyfriend. He was terrified of people finding out. He remembered hearing about Matthew Shepard a few years ago, and that was what made the decision for him. Dallon would rather die old and single than young and openly gay. He wanted a future, and from what he could tell, he wasn’t going to get one if anyone knew he was gay.

 

So he sat in church, because he believed in God, and he asked God to take care of the people who had lost families and friends in the attack, and to be there for the first responders and help them find all the survivors they could. He didn’t ask God for vengeance. God didn’t do vengeance.

 

He’d asked Ryan if he wanted to come with, but Ryan had declined. Ryan was decidedly agnostic, and he said that he had no issues with Christianity but after eighteen years of it he wanted a bit of a break. So Ryan was back at the corms, most likely sleeping in and waiting for everything in Provo to open. Nothing in Provo opened before noon, and a lot of places waited until one or two in the afternoon to open if they could afford it.

 

When the service ended, Dallon took his time getting out of the sanctuary. He wasn’t in a rush. He had to take a bus back to campus anyway, and he knew it would be crowded by everyone getting out of church. He could wait. He wanted to explore this church and see what groups it had to offer, anyway.

 

Dallon had gotten so used to having a Youth Group to go to, but he was no longer a youth in the eyes of the church. He was a young adult. He was twenty, two years out of high school, and trying to figure out how to get back into the real world. He was a little scared, too, because this was his first time making choices without his parents or his siblings around to tell him when he was doing something wrong.

 

Dallon knew, subconsciously, that he would probably fall out of favour with most of his family. They were all conservative, and they followed traditions like they came out of the Bible itself. Dallon didn’t always do that. He knew that there was nothing wrong with gay men and lesbians existing. He understood that the world was better off with people pursuing the things that made them happy, instead of sticking to “practical work” that would ensure a paycheck.

 

Stuff like that made Dallon a liberal hack in the eyes of his family. It was insane, but it was where he’d grown up.

 

Dallon found the information desk, grabbed a flyer for the Men in their Twenties Bible study group, and headed back towards the bus stop. It was nice out. Cold, but not bad. Dallon hoped that he would get used to the cold quickly, because Utah got very, very cold in the winter. Dallon was looking forward to the cold, however. He wanted to learn how to ice skate, but he’d never brought it up around his family or his friends in high school. They all thought that men who figure skated were gay.

 

Ryan, however, was both a metal music fan and a hockey fan, and had already offered to teach Dallon how to skate so that the two of them could join a rec hockey team in the spring. Dallon wasn’t very interested in hockey, but he wasn’t going to pass up the oppurtunity.

 

Dallon missed his bus. He waited the ten minutes for the next one, and then headed back to his dorm to see if Ryan was awake yet. So far, Ryan was Dallon’s only friend. It was harder to make friends in college than in high school, and Dallon didn’t know where to go to meet people that he would get along with. He was interested in music and history and literature and comics, and it felt like no one here wanted anything to do with “worldly interests.”

 

He knocked on the door to his dorm before entering, just in case. He’d grown up sharing a room with his older brother, and he knew that knocking was essential.

 

“I’m alive,” Ryan called out as Dallon slowly opened the door. He was still in his bed, laying on his side and squinting as the light poured in from the hallway. “I’m also not yet wearing pants. Wanna get food?”

 

“You need pants for that,” Dallon said, because he didn’t know what else to say.

 

“Fine,” Ryan said. He slid out of bed and Dallon busied himself with the papers on his desk while Ryan got changed. Ryan had clearly not grown up sharing a room with his brother, because he often forgot that Dallon was still there and could see him. Dallon didn’t want Ryan to think that he was a creep. Or that he was gay for that matter. Dallon didn’t want to lose his one friends because of homophobia.

 

“Alright, I’m good to go,” Ryan said.

 

“Don’t forget your ID,” Dallon said, pointing to where it was still sitting on Ryan’s desk.

 

Ryan snatched it, and then the two boys headed out. There was a cafeteria near their dorm, so they headed over there. Ryan had made friends quicker than Dallon, which didn’t surprise Dallon much. Ryan looked out of place, but it made it easier for him to attract people he’d be able to talk to. If there were any punks on campus, Ryan’s jet black hair and tattered jeans would attract them.

 

“So how’d you meet these guys?” Dallon asked as they swiped their cards to get into the cafeteria.

 

“Class,” Ryan said. “Matt’s from Cedar City and Angela’s from Wyoming. Cheyanne, I think.”

 

“Well, at least I won’t be the only person from out of state,” Dallon said. A lot of people here were from Utah. Dallon felt like an outsider since he was from a place that was often nicknamed Sin City. He didn’t know how to explain to people that most of Las Vegas was like any other city. Most people there weren’t sex crazed, gambling billionaires who had sex with prostitutes every night. Most of the city was normal.

 

“Wyoming is pretty different from Las Vegas, dude,” Ryan said.

 

“How do you know that?” Dallon asked. “Have you been to Wyoming?”

 

“No,” Ryan said. “But Angela lived on a farm. So. Pretty sure there’s a difference.”

 

Dallon shrugged. “Guess we’ll find out.”

 

He followed Ryan over to a booth where three other people were sitting. There were two guys and one girl, and so Dallon assumed that the girl was Angela. One of the guys looked fresh out of high school and the other had a full beard. Dallon had no idea which one was Matt and which one was a stranger.

 

Ryan motioned to Dallon. “Guys, this is my roommate, Dallon. Dallon, this is Angela,” the girl, “and Matt,” the non-bearded one, “I don’t know who the third person is.”

 

“I’m also Matt,” he said. He put his hand over Angela’s. “I’m Angela’s boyfriend.”

 

“Well, one of us is going to have to change,” said younger Matt. “What’s your last name?”

 

“Seppi,” he said. He raised his eyebrow. “Yours?”

 

“Glass.”

 

Ryan grinned and crossed his arms over his chest. “Well. Guess that solves that problem. We’ve got Seppi and Glass now. Either of you guys have a car and wanna drive up to the city next weekend? There’s a show I wanna see.”

 

“I’ve got a car, but it’s small,” Seppi said. He looked around at all five of them and shrugged. “I guess we could all cram in. It’s not that long of a drive.”

 

Dallon nodded, and looked around at the other three. He still only knew Ryan, but maybe this was how he’d make friends. He and Ryan had very different tastes in music, but that didn’t mean anything. Dallon just wanted friends, and to feel like he was a part of something bigger than just himself. This could be it. This could be the beginning of something bigger.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment/kudos if you enjoyed!


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